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Astrophysics and Astronomy

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Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

2009

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Nanoscopic Investigation Of Surface Morphology Of Neural Growth Cones And Indium Containing Group-Iii Nitrides, Göksel Durkaya Dec 2009

Nanoscopic Investigation Of Surface Morphology Of Neural Growth Cones And Indium Containing Group-Iii Nitrides, Göksel Durkaya

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

This research focuses on the nanoscopic investigation of the three-dimensional surface morphology of the neural growth cones from the snail Helisoma trivolvis, and InN and InGaN semiconductor material systems using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). In the analysis of the growth cones, the results obtained from AFM experiments have been used to construct a 3D architecture model for filopodia. The filopodia from B5 and B19 neurons have exhibited different tapering mechanisms. The volumetric analysis has been used to estimate free Ca2+ concentration in the filopodium. The Phase Contrast Microscopy (PCM) images of the growth cones have been corrected to thickness provided …

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Optical And Terahertz Energy Concentration On The Nanoscale In Plasmonics, Anastasia Rusina Oct 2009

Optical And Terahertz Energy Concentration On The Nanoscale In Plasmonics, Anastasia Rusina

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

We introduce an approach to implement full coherent control on nanometer length scales. It is based on spatiotemporal modulation of the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) fields at the thick edge of a nanowedge. The SPP wavepackets propagating toward the sharp edge of this nanowedge are compressed and adiabatically concentrated at a nanofocus, forming an ultrashort pulse of local fields. The profile of the focused waveform as a function of time and one spatial dimension is completely coherently controlled. We establish the principal limits for the nanoconcentration of the terahertz (THz) radiation in metal/dielectric waveguides and determine their optimum shapes required …

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Giant Plasmonic Energy And Momentum Transfer On The Nanoscale, Maxim Durach Oct 2009

Giant Plasmonic Energy And Momentum Transfer On The Nanoscale, Maxim Durach

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

We have developed a general theory of the plasmonic enhancement of many-body phenomena resulting in a closed expression for the surface plasmon-dressed Coulomb interaction. It is shown that this interaction has a resonant nature. We have also demonstrated that renormalized interaction is a long-ranged interaction whose intensity is considerably increased compared to bare Coulomb interaction over the entire region near the plasmonic nanostructure. We illustrate this theory by re-deriving the mirror charge potential near a metal sphere as well as the quasistatic potential behind the so-called perfect lens at the surface plasmon (SP) frequency. The dressed interaction for an important …

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Photoionization Of The Be Isoelectronic Sequence: Relativistic And Nonrelativistic R-Matrix Calculations, Wei-Chun Chu Aug 2009

Photoionization Of The Be Isoelectronic Sequence: Relativistic And Nonrelativistic R-Matrix Calculations, Wei-Chun Chu

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

The photoionization of the beryllium-like isoelectronic series has been studied. The bound state wave functions of the target ions were built with CIV3 program. The relativistic Breit-Pauli R-matrix method was used to calculate the cross sections in the photon energy range between the ionization threshold and 1s24f7/2 threshold for each ion. For the total cross sections of Be, B+, C+2, N+3, and O+4, our results match experiment well. The comparison between the present work and other theoretical works are also discussed. We show the comparison with our LS results as it indicates the importance of relativistic effects on different ions. …

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Sizing Up The Stars, Tabetha Suzanne Boyajian Jul 2009

Sizing Up The Stars, Tabetha Suzanne Boyajian

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

For the main part of this dissertation, I have executed a survey of nearby, main sequence A, F, and G-type stars with the CHARA Array, successfully measuring the angular diameters of forty-four stars to better than 4% accuracy. The results of these observations also yield empirical determinations of stellar linear radii and effective temperatures for the stars observed. In addition, these CHARA-determined temperatures, radii, and luminosities are fit to Yonsei-Yale isochrones to constrain the masses and ages of the stars. These quantities are compared to the results found in Allende Prieto & Lambert (1999), Holmberg et al. (2007), and Takeda …

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A Multi-Wavelength Investigation Of Seyfert 1.8 And 1.9 Galaxies, Margaret Trippe Jul 2009

A Multi-Wavelength Investigation Of Seyfert 1.8 And 1.9 Galaxies, Margaret Trippe

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

We focus on determining the underlying physical cause of a Seyfert galaxy's appearance as type a 1.8 or 1.9. Are these "intermediate" Seyfert types typical Seyfert 1 nuclei reddened by central dusty tori or by nuclear dust lanes/spirals in the narrow-line region? Or, are they similar to NGC 2992, objects that have intrinsically weak continua and weak broad emission lines? Our study compares measurements of the reddenings of the narrow and broad-line regions with each other and with the X-ray column derived from XMM Newton 0.5-10 keV spectra to determine the presence and location of dust in the line of …

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Epr, Endor And Dft Studies On X-Irradiated Single Crystals Of L-Lysine Monohydrochloride Monohydrate And L-Arginine Monohydrocloride Monohydrate, Yiying Zhou Jul 2009

Epr, Endor And Dft Studies On X-Irradiated Single Crystals Of L-Lysine Monohydrochloride Monohydrate And L-Arginine Monohydrocloride Monohydrate, Yiying Zhou

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

When proteins and DNA interact, arginine and lysine are the two amino acids most often in close contact with the DNA. In order to understand the radiation damage to DNA in vivo, which is always associated with protein, it is important to learn the radiation chemistry of arginine and lysine independently, and when complexed to DNA. This work studied X-irradiated single crystals of L-lysine monohydrochloride dihydrate (L-lysine·HCl·2H2O) and L-arginine monohydrochloride monohydrate (L-arginine·HCl·H2O) with EPR, ENDOR, EIE techniques and DFT calculations. In both crystal types irradiated at 66K, the carboxyl anion radical and the decarboxylation radical were detected. DFT calculations supported …

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Solar Energy Conversion In Plants And Bacteria Studied Using Ftir Difference Spectroscopy And Quantum Chemical Computational Methodologies, Sreeja Parameswaran Jul 2009

Solar Energy Conversion In Plants And Bacteria Studied Using Ftir Difference Spectroscopy And Quantum Chemical Computational Methodologies, Sreeja Parameswaran

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

This dissertation presents a study of the molecular mechanism underlying the highly efficient solar energy conversion processes that occur in the Photosystem I (PS I) reaction centers in plants and bacteria. The primary electron donor P700 is at the heart of solar energy conversion process in PS I and the aim is to obtain a better understanding of the electronic and structural organization of P700 in the ground and excited states. Static Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) difference spectroscopy (DS) in combination with site directed mutagenesis and Density Functional Theory (DFT) based vibrational frequency simulations were used to investigate how protein …

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A Survey Of Stellar Families: Multiplicity Of Solar-Type Stars, Deepak Raghavan Apr 2009

A Survey Of Stellar Families: Multiplicity Of Solar-Type Stars, Deepak Raghavan

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

I present the results of a comprehensive assessment of companions to 454 solar-type stars within 25 pc. New observational aspects of this work include surveys for (1) very close companions with long-baseline interferometry at the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array, (2) close companions with speckle interferometry, and (3) wide proper motion companions identified by blinking multi-epoch archival images. I have also obtained and included unpublished results from extensive radial velocity monitoring programs. The many sources utilized enable a thorough evaluation of stellar and brown dwarf companions. The results presented here include eight new companion discoveries, four of …

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Uncooled Infrared Photon Detection Concepts And Devices, Viraj Vishwakantha Jayaweera Piyankarage Mar 2009

Uncooled Infrared Photon Detection Concepts And Devices, Viraj Vishwakantha Jayaweera Piyankarage

Physics and Astronomy Dissertations

This work describes infrared (IR) photon detector techniques based on novel semiconductor device concepts and detector designs. The aim of the investigation was to examine alternative IR detection concepts with a view to resolve some of the issues of existing IR detectors such as operating temperature and response range. Systems were fabricated to demonstrate the following IR detection concepts and determine detector parameters: (i) Near-infrared (NIR) detection based on dye-sensitization of nanostructured semiconductors, (ii) Displacement currents in semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) embedded dielectric media, (iii) Split-off band transitions in GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction interfacial workfunction internal photoemission (HEIWIP) detectors. A far-infrared detector …

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